Foreign experts criticize RI's truth commission

Foreign experts criticize RI's truth commission

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

International experts on truth and reconciliation commissions
have expressed concerns about Indonesia's recently passed law on
the establishment of such a commission, saying that it contained
loopholes that have distinct disadvantages for victims.

Speaking during a convention of managers of truth commissions
and representatives from the International Center for
Transitional Justice (ICTJ) here on Monday, ICTJ senior associate
Eduardo Gonzalez said one of the loopholes causing concern was
that the commission did not have a mandate to conduct historical
analyses nor to determine the patterns, spread or systematic
character of the crimes in question.

He said the law, passed in September 2004, did not allow the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR) to recommend policies
to prevent the repetition of the situations that caused the
violations in the first place.

Gonzalez, who was also a member of the Peruvian Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, added that there was no indication in
the law that any aspects of the commission's work would be
conducted publicly, which would allow the victim's experiences to
be known by the society at large.

Marcie Mersky, a former executive secretary of the Guatemala
Historical Clarification Commission, said it was essential to
identify the historical cases and the conditions that led to the
atrocities and dissenting voices.

"It's important to establish institutional responsibility to
open the door to effective reformation in concerned institutions.
What happened were not just accidents nor excesses, but were
results of very conscious, well-applied policies. It's not just
that there were a few bad people, but (it was exactly) the way
the political and military systems were set up," she told The
Jakarta Post.

The establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
is mandated by a People's Consultative Assembly decree issued in
2000, which states that Indonesian history has been a witness to
oppression resulting from discriminatory practices considered to
be forms of human rights abuses.

Within the seven years of its mandated existence, including a
two-year possible extension, the commission is expected to
resolve cases of human rights violations that occurred before
2000, the year the law on human rights tribunal was passed.

The law on the commission stipulates that human rights
violators can receive a formal pardon if they confess to their
wrongdoings and the victims forgive them.

If the victims refuse to forgive their abusers, the commission
can still recommend that the president grant them amnesty. If the
alleged perpetrators completely deny the accusations against
them, they will be prosecuted by the human rights court.

Families and victims of various tragedies, including the
Tanjung Priok massacre in 1984, the 1989 Lampung incident, the
mass disappearances of government critics, the May 1998 mayhem,
and the Trisakti shootings in 1998, have opposed the law as it
would allow the perpetrators to go unpunished.

The military and police forces, many of whom are likely to be
named in rights investigations, have suggested that the cases be
reconciled without disclosing the truth, because revealing it
would only lead to new conflicts within the nation.